Letters: Gun rights, foreclosure reform, education reform

Gun rights Our no-can-do Legislature remains deadlocked on whether or not to, by law, weaponize Oregon schools. If the GOP posse gets its way, anyone with a gun license could freely carry on any campus.

Shilling for the NRA, Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, drags out that bloated carcass of "allowing law-abiding citizens" their gun rights. Aw, shoot, Senator. You're law-abiding till you're not. How many law-abiding NRA members are not anymore? The certainty of campus shootouts between "criminals" with guns and "law-abiding citizens" with guns diminishes their distinction. More casualties will result.

Parents, students and faculties have overriding rights: Parents have the right to not enroll their sons and daughters at any school where guns are freely allowed. Students can be also taken out of schools, and when it applies, have their tuition reimbursed. Faculty have the right not to teach at any school where guns abide.

Most of all, Oregon voters should demand our right to decide whether or not this life and death issue ever becomes law. It's far too loaded to leave to partisan strong-arming.

DON NESBITT Northeast Portland

*****

The Oregonian is right to call for enactment of a ban on guns in public schools and universities ("Banning guns from campuses," Feb. 29). A longstanding ban on guns in public universities protected Oregon students for decades, but was undone last year by a court decision.

Wayne LaPierre, the former president of the NRA, was correct when he wrote: "We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period ... with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel."

Campus law enforcement professionals agree, and oppose guns on campuses as causing more problems than they could ever solve, and as an impediment to swift, effective response in the crisis shootings we have come to dread. And at least one study backs them up, finding student gun owners to be more likely to get into trouble with the police -- to binge drink, use cocaine, vandalize property or get a DUII. The Legislature should restore the ban on guns in schools before it heads home.

KATHLEEN POOL Northeast Portland

*****

How can a state-run university, which is a public institution, infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms? It is absurd to let ROTC and hunting/target shooting clubs retain their rights while disallowing the licensed owners who legally carry their guns for protection.

The troubled mind, if so inclined, is just as capable of committing a crime with one of the "favored" weapons. The only difference in the equation would be the absence of the law-abiding being able to possibly mitigate a felony.

Ben Eckstein, University of Oregon student body president, says: "When anybody brings a firearm on campus ... it threatens our education." This is a fallacy. Beware: When the salesman gets his foot in the door, he will throw dirt on your rug. We must all insist that each of our rights is protected; even those we currently might not be using.

NORWOOD CHAPMAN Southwest Portland

Foreclosure reform Oregon House Republicans, refusing to consider the Senate-passed mortgage mediation and restructuring bills, will tell you that they are "standing on principle" and "taking one for the team."

Their principle is "Profits before people." Their team is the Bankees.

The recent settlement with the large banks provides funds to assist state governments. It also provides assistance to the many Oregon citizens who are struggling to keep their homes.

I suggest that those we have sent to Salem resolve their differences and help our friends and neighbors. The clock is ticking for these folks.

DEE ANDERSON Northeast Portland

*****

State Reps. Matthew Wand and Gene Whisnant wrote an op-ed explaining their efforts to amend pending foreclosure-related legislation to "expand assistance to distressed homeowners." They are to be commended for keeping us up-to-date on this complex and important issue; however, they forgot to mention that their amendments also include, among others, retroactive legalization of issues surrounding the use by banks of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) and the repeal of the attorney general's authority to prosecute banks' abusive mortgage servicing practices. The omission of these items from the discussion is disingenuous at best, as these are issues working against the aforementioned "distressed homeowners."

Also, the inclusion of these items, undoubtedly at the request of big banks, calls into question the ability of these gentlemen to adequately represent their constituents, which they described as members of "some of Oregon's most economically distressed communities," which are being hammered by some of the same banking practices for which legalization is being proposed.

DOUG BINGHAM Sherwood

Education reform As a kindergarten teacher with a class of 29 students in a school identified as having the highest percentage of children living in poverty in the state of Oregon, I disagree with Doug Wells about the wisdom of Gov. Kitzhaber's version of education reform ("It's time to pass education reform," Commentary, Feb. 29).

My students and I don't need a chief education officer, a unified state system or achievement compacts. We need a smaller class, an aide to help keep students on task and more time for me to work with the other kindergarten teachers at my school on planning our curriculum and improving our teaching methods.